- In summer 2015, Avid released Media Composer version 8.4which contains important updatesthat I'd like to share with you.We're not going to be going through every single update,just those that are applicable to this essential training.Again this movie is mostly for people who are alreadyfamiliar with Media Composer that just want to quicklyget up to speed with the recent updates to the software.If you're brand new to the software,you can start with chapter one of this course.Alright so the first thing that I want to mentionis just a change in terminologywithin Avid's menu options.

But it's an important once since it concernsa major function of Avid media management.And this concerns the AMA processwhich is short for Avid Media Access.And we cover this workflow a lot in this training.AMA is the active linking to media on your systemin order to screen, organize, or edit your footage.And prior to the 8.4 release AMA was what it was calledin all the menu options.So I'll just pull up some screen shots from the course here.You can see that under settings it''s called AMA,we have our AMA settings.

If I go to the file menu,you can see AMA Link is what it's called.And if I right click in a binthe contextual menu comes up and it's AMA linkand relinked to AMA files.So now in 8.4 even though AMA is still a term you can usefor linking to media,the menu options have mostly gone througha bit of an overhaul.If I got to settings you'll see that we no longer have AMAas a setting.Instead it's called Link.Okay so if I go to the link settingsthen everything in here is pretty much the samewith just a few new things.

And I'll come back to that in a moment.If I go to file, instead of AMA link,it's now Link to Media.And if I right click in my binagain it's called Link to Media or relink to filesinstead of AMA link and relink to AMA files.Okay so the terminology in the Avid menus is changedbut most of the core functionality of AMA linkingremains the same.There are just a couple of small changesthat I want to bring up about the linking behavior.I'm going to go back into the link menu within the settingsand then I'm going to come to link optionsand I'm going to come down here,properties of new clips,and then I have reformatting options.

This is where I can choose how linked media behavesif it's not the same aspect ratioas your project aspect ratio.You can see that you have stretch options,pillarboxing and letterboxing options,center cropping options,and center keep size options,and then you also have the option to set SD clipsas 16:9 by default.And this just forces all the SD mediato be tagged as 16:9.Now I'm not going to go into how choosingeach of these options is going to affecthow your media looks,but definitely be aware of thembecause when you are bringing in mediathat is sized differently from you project settingsyou want to be deliberate abouthow that linked media is going to come in.

And speaking of frame sizes,I next want to mention that in this versionof Media Composer you can set custom frames sizesfor your projects.I'm just going to pop out to the select project window here.And if I choose new project, and then come to format,we have all these options that we recently gotin the 8.3 update.But the new thing is down here I also have custom.So if I choose custom I'm able to type inmy own raster dimension in the height and width boxes.

The minimum size that you can set upis 256 by 128.And the maximum size that you can set upis 8,192 by 8,192.Okay so a lot of flexibility hereand within each height and width combinationyou can choose an associated frame rate.Additionally if you like, you can savecustom raster dimensions,by clicking on the save preset button.So I can call this one AK Square 23976,and OK.

And now that's available under my presets.Okay I'm going to go back into my Hot Glass projectand we'll explore a few more things.I'm going to load a sequence here becauseI want to take a look at a coupleof things that we have in the timeline.There's a new timeline quick find option down here,and this lets you enter text that you cansearch for in the timeline.You can search for visible timeline text, resolution,clip name, comments, markers,all of these, or a combination of these.So if I select markers it's going to find bothvisible timeline text as well asany text contained in markers.

So I'm just going to type in here the word Ovenbecause I know I have some clips of the Hot Glass oven.If I just press return it's going to go to the firstinstance where there's a match.You can see that this clip has the word oven in it.I can find the next one by clicking onfind to the right.And there's also a find to the left button.By the way, these have been added to the Edit menu.There's timeline quick find, and then find next,and find previous.So you can map these to the keyboard for convenience.I'm going to switch to another sequence here, demo sequence,because I want to show you some additional indicatorsof clip characteristics that are now displayedin the timeline.

If a source clip's size and position have been manipulatedeither via frame flex or via the reformatting link settingswe mentioned earlier,it's marked with an s, for spacial adjustment.If a source clip has undergone color encodingit's marked with a c,and if a clip has a motion adapter,which means that the frame rate is automaticallybeing converted from its original formatto match your project settings,it will have a t applied to it for a temporal adjustment.So if you see these little badgeson your clips in the timeline,that's all that is.

It just means there's been a temporal, spacial,or color adjustment made to your source clipswhen they've been brought into this project.If you like you can customize which of these you seeby going into the timeline fast menuand choosing which of these you want displayed.You can also now easily switch betweendual monitor and single monitor setupsthanks to a new option in the special menu.I can go to single monitor.And then once I've chosen that,I'm able to expand this to any size that I want,much larger than before.

And this can be very usefulespecially when working in effects mode.And I can just go back to show dual monitor,and I'm back in source record mode.Finally there is just one more thing I want to mention,a change in terminology in the export settings dialog box.So if I right click here and choose export,and then go to options,up here it says use selected tracks.This terminology has changed from use enabled tracksto use selected tracks.Still means the exact same thing though,whatever tracks you have selected in the timelinewill be included in the export.

And then there's also this additional option here,include inactive audio tracks that you can select as well.Alright so just some changes in terminologyand additional functions than the export settings containedwithin this training.Alright so that's a brief run throughof some of main features in the Media Composer 8.4 update.Make sure to check back when futureMedia Composer updates are releasedto learn the latest and greatest changes in the softwarethat are applicable to this essential training.

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Author

Updated

2/25/2016

Released

9/17/2014

Avid Media Composer 8 Essential Training is a start-to-finish, project-based course designed to get you up to speed on every aspect of Avid Media Composer. Staff author Ashley Kennedy begins with a fast-track chapter that breaks down the entire editing process into eight steps—great as an overview for new editors, and a good crash course in Media Composer for editors migrating from other platforms. She then focuses on getting you comfortable with each stage of the editing process—from preparation and organization to editing and refining, to audio and effects, to media management and output. Each post-production technique is explained thoroughly and concisely, using real-world examples from a documentary-style promo project. Dive in and learn how to take your projects from concept to creation.

Skill Level Beginner

Duration

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Q: This course was updated on 12/12/2014. What changed?

A: We added and revised tutorials to cover the changes to Avid Media Composer in v8.2 and v8.3. Watch the "What's new" movies for an overview of the updates.

Q: This course was updated on 8/24/2015. What changed?

A: Avid released the 8.4 version of Media Composer in June 2015. We added two new movies to this course to describe the update and covering working with high-resolution files in the newest version of the software.

Q: This course was updated on 02/25/2016. What changed?

A: We added five tutorials covering the Avid Media Composer 8.5 update, released in January 2016.